this is walter cronkite speaking to you from cbs television election headquarters, here in new york city. >> reporter: it wasn't just the first coast-to-coast broadcast of a presidential election and walter cronkite's first time anchoring on election night. it was the first time a computer was used to project the winner. >> this is the face of a univay. reporter: laughable now, ground-breaking then. >> univac, can you tell us what your prediction is now on the basis of the returns we've had so far? i don't know. i think that univac is an honest machine, a good deal more honest than a lot of commentators working. he doesn't think he has enough to tell us anything about. >> reporter: but the computer did have something to say. with not even 3.5 million votes counted, he predicted 100-to-1 odds of an eisenhower victory in a landslide so huge it seemed impossible given what had been thought to be a close race. the results were with held for several hours. cbs and the machine's makers fearing humiliation. but univac was right. the war between the statheads and the pundits had begun. fast forw